J. H. Barnes, Esq.
(1833-1889)
16 March 1861

Volume 2, page number 321, sitting number 2573.

[Identified as ‘J.H. Barnes’ in the Silvy daybooks, this is possibly James Hindmarsh Barnes.]

Born on 15 April 1833 at Bath in Somerset, he was baptised on 25 August 1833 at a Swedenborgian chapel in Bath. His father was John Wickham Barnes, a surgeon and apothecary.

James appears on the 1851 census living with his parents at 37 Southgate Street in Bath. He was an apprentice to his father. In 1856 he was appointed House Surgeon to the Royal Westminster Opthalmic Hospital (Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 20 November 1856).

On 29 May 1860 in the parish of Walcot St Swithin in Somerset, he married Elizabeth Hayward, daughter of John Hayward, a ‘Boarding House Keeper,’ according to their marriage certificate. James gave his profession as ‘Surgeon’ and his residence as ‘Liverpool.’

The couple appear on the 1861 census living at 3 Pembroke Place, Liverpool. James described himself as an FRCP [Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians], an FSA [Fellow of the Society of Apothecaries] and a General Practitioner.

Dr James Hindmarsh Barnes died, aged 47, on 19 March 1889 at Pembroke Place, Liverpool. He left an estate valued at £5000.

‘His fatal illness was the result of blood poisoning, contracted thirteen years ago while operating professionally upon a diseased patient at Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary, and which not only prevented him from following his profession, in which he was fast taking a foremost place, but, in spite of the advice and treatment of some of the leading medical men of the day, caused him for years to endure great physical suffering. The deceased gentleman published a pamphlet describing the various symptoms of his disorder, which was read before the Medical Society of Liverpool; and in 1874 he was appointed superintendent registrar of Liverpool as some compensation for the injuries he had received, which post, however, he has only retained for five years. Dr James Hindmarsh Barnes was the second son of a medical man of Bath, and for some time held the post of consulting surgeon to the workhouse, and succeeded Dr Fletcher in that office. He was much respected, not only for his professional ability but for his genial and intellectual qualities. He leaves a widow and three children to mourn his loss, besides a large circle of professional and private friends’ (Liverpool Echo, 22 March 1880).